Beckett vs the Linchpin
by MyNameIsJeffNImLost
Summary: Castle isn't the only person that knows a guy… or a couple CIA agents. 3rd in "Averages" series after "Castle vs the Law of Averages" and "Caskett vs Dr Morgan". After Chuck finale and during Castle 4.17, Linchpin.


_Summary: _ Castle isn't the only person that knows a guy… or a couple CIA agents.

I had this idea before Linchpin aired, and it fits even better now. This story is set in my _Castle vs the Law of Averages_ Chuck/Castle crossover universe. For the uninitiated, that story and its short sequel, _Caskett vs Dr. Morgan_, are set in Season 3 of Castle and Season 4 of Chuck. This story is set after the _Chuck_ series finale and during _Castle_ 4.16, "Linchpin". Unlike the other stories in the series, it is AU. This story does not require reading the other two, but it is probably more enjoyable if you do.

Disclaimer: Nobody else owns anything here, so why would I?

Disclaimer 2: No beta. Why would I sucker/obligate/subject anyone into reading this when they didn't want to? However, if you send me corrections, I'll fix them.

_29 Feb 2012_

**XXXXXXXXXX**

_BBBBRIIINNGG! BBBBRIIINNNG!_

Kate wasn't sure this was a good idea. In fact, she was sure this idea was borderline crazy. It's just she was so frustrated being stuck at the twelfth precinct with no leads and no car. Her idiot captain wouldn't give her access to another cruiser, even though hers was at the bottom of the river. She was half tempted to go home and take out her bike to join the boys in their canvas. That would have been a better idea than this call.

_BBBBRIIINNGG! BBBBRIIINNNG!_

Normally she would only do something like this because Castle pushed her into it. She was filling in the crazy in his absence. She should have given up after the last call. But no, she had to dial the second number.

_BBBBRIIINNGG! BBBBRIIINNNG!_

While Castle was still on the case, he was so distracted by his _former_ muse that he wasn't even useful as a distraction right now.

_BBBBRIII-_

A woman answered the phone with a caution tone, "Chuck's phone. This is Sarah... his wife, I guess, speaking."

"Agent Walker, this is Detective Beckett with the NYPD," Kate Beckett said. She was desperate for a lead, and desperate times sometimes called for long shots, which is what this call was.

"NYPD? Why would you be calling Chuck? How do you even have this number?" Sarah rapid fired her questions.

"I called his cover job at the Buy More, and Skip Johnson gave me this number."

"Wait, you know that was a cover job. How do you know that?" Sarah's tone had shifted to accusatory.

Kate thought something was off. "You were there when Agent Bartowski gave me his card."

"When was this?" Sarah asked.

"Last year, in New York, when you were... You never told me what you were doing except the device had a radioactive signature. You held us hostage while you waited for the device to be transported out."

"Really? I thought that was at an airport in L.A. Something with fruit juice or Hi-C or something. I don't remember. Maybe I should get Chuck. Just a minute." Sarah left Chuck's—and her bedroom and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Sarah smiled. They had been making in _their_ bedroom ever since the beach. She just wasn't used to the idea of having a home yet. That didn't mean she didn't like it.

Beckett could hear Sarah talking away from the phone. "Chuck, there's a call for you. Detective Beckett with the NYPD. She has your card. Why was the NYPD involved in the suitcase nuke incident at LAX?"

Chuck threw an empty egg shell into the sink and looked around for a towel. "They weren't. Different mission. We recovered a couple of hand-held EMP devices in New York. Are you getting memories mixed up again?" Sarah shrugged. Seeing Sarah hold up a phone, Chuck gave up his search for a towel and grabbed another egg. "Could you put it on speaker?"

"Sure, sweetie," Sarah replied as she kissed him on the cheek. Beckett heard the background sound change as she tried to process what she had heard. A suitcase nuke! That was a lot more dangerous than a dirty bomb. "You're on speaker, Detective Beckett," Sarah said.

Kate was sure this call was a bad idea. What was she thinking, calling them at home? Time to hang up gracefully. "Agent Bartowski, I caught you at a bad time. You really—"

"That's ok. I'm just making omelets. And it's not 'agent' anymore. Sarah and I quit the CIA right before our wedding last spring. We run a private security firm now. Carmichael Industries: spies-for-hire. We're the spies who care. Well, we were the spies who care. Now we're the computer security firm that cares. It's safer, and we can leverage our take down of the Omen virus."

"That was you? " Kate wasn't sure what to say. "Um… Wow… Well, if you are not longer CIA, then I doubt you can help. The case I'm working is classified."

"Don't let that stop you. If it makes you feel better, Sarah and I have an open invite to go back to the CIA and work for General Beckman, whenever we feel the need to save the world again. For now, if we save the world, we'll just bill her. The government's still dragging its feet on releasing millions of our money that was seized a few months ago. We could probably get it back faster with a few small jobs."

Kate hesitated. In for a penny… "Ok, I guess I can leave out the classified parts. My captain and the rest of my team are not allowed to know those either. Only Castle and I are, I mean were, in the loop. So… I'm searching for a murder suspect named Thomas Gage, who has killed three people."

"Whoa!" Chuck exclaimed.

"Chuck, are you ok?" Sarah put her arm loosely around Chuck for support. "That's a mess."

"Words for the wise: Don't crack an egg when you might flash." Chuck had crushed an egg in his hand. It was dripping on the counter and the floor.

"I should take over," Sarah offered. "I'll dice the peppers."

"Uh, no thanks. I know you make a wonderful omelet, Sarah, but you kind of freaked me out when you cut up the chicken last time."

"I had amnesia and was planning on killing you. I was _trying_ to intimidate you."

"Well, it worked."

"Not really. I didn't want you getting frisky before I found the glasses, which were empty anyway. The next thing I knew, you're offering to give me a massage."

"Hmmm, that sounds like fun. It is an open offer," Chuck suggested as he pulled Sarah into his side with his clean hand.

"Maybe later. I'm sure Detective Beckett doesn't want to hear us re-explore our forgotten sex life."

_No, not at all,_ Kate mused. Wait. Forgotten? No. That's not important.

Sarah asked Chuck, "So who is Gage?"

"Former SEAL Team 6 member. Now a CIA operative. He was burned a couple months ago. The evidence was a little sketchy, but we know how bad the CIA is about rogue spies, trusting ones like Decker and Shaw that are clearly bad, while locking up others like Casey and us, who are only trying to protect their families. Casey worked with Gage on a few ops in Afghanistan. We ought to give him a call."

Beckett recognized the name of the NSA Colonel she met last year.

"Isn't he embedded with Verbanski?" Sarah asked.

"I bet they're em_bed_ded," Chuck scoffed. Finally finding that towel, Chuck wiped his hand clean of the egg and took the phone from Sarah. "I'll conference him in."

_BRIIINNGG! BRIIINNNG!_

"Hello." It was a woman's voice.

"Hi, this is Chuck-"

"Casey, it was your phone. Here."

_Grunt._

"Casey, isn't it daytime where you are?" Chuck asked.

"We've been on night stakeouts, moron." Casey had been asleep. "This better not be a social call. Are your fingers are fire? Is Alex ok?"

"It's not, no, and yes. I've got Detective Beckett from NYPD on the call. Remember from the—"

"I'm not the one whose memories were erased."

Sarah glared at the phone. Chuck put a gentle hand on her arm before continuing, "Right. She's looking for Thomas Gage, who allegedly killed three people-"

"If Gage killed them, they deserved it," Casey stated clearly.

"Are you sure?" Chuck asked. "A couple months ago, the CIA declared him rogue."

"Not possible. Well, it is _technically_ possible. But remember I was burned once or twice. Maybe it was a frame up. Who burned him?"

Beckett was surprised they actually knew Gage. Maybe this call wasn't a long shot. The only problem is they sounded like they were Gage's allies. They might not want to help catch him. She answered evasively, "While I could reveal the name of my suspect, I can't reveal the name of a CIA agent to people who are not active agents."

Casey grunted, "Whatever. I'm going back to sleep. Gage is a patriot. True blue. The person that burned him is dirty." With that last assertion, Casey hung up.

"Well, if you can't tell me the agent's name, can you give me a hint?" Chuck asked. "I happen to know the service record of every CIA, NSA, DNI, DHS, DEA, INS, FBI and every other alphabet soup agent that was active as of five weeks ago. I also probably still have access to the CIA mainframe from when I hacked in around that time. You know, Sarah, I really should tell Beckman about the security hole. Although, I doubt very many people could hack it. I was using the Orion backdoor."

"Sounds like something we should charge the CIA for," Sarah mused.

"Getting money from the CIA without the gunplay. Sounds good to me." Chuck kissed her on the cheek.

Beckett couldn't believe the felony she had heard Chuck openly admit to. "From the sound of it, I really should not have made this call. I don't think you can help me anymore."

"Nonsense. A little over three weeks ago we saved the lives of General Beckman, her Chinese counterpart, and hundreds of innocent people at a concert hall downtown. For at least a little while, we have a get out of jail free card when it comes to saving the world and catching bad guys. Let us help."

Beckett was quiet for a few seconds. She brushed her hand up her forehead and through her hair. She really hated Castle's former muse, but the case was classified. She shouldn't have risked pulling in outsiders. She just liked being the person that 'knew a guy' for a change. Castle might know them too, but she was the one making the call.

At that moment, the front door of Chuck's place opened. It was Morgan and Alex.

"Hey guys," Morgan greeted. "We have pastries! We're ready for a Carmichael Industries planning session. Chuck, why haven't you started the omelets? Did you ruin them already?"

Beckett quietly groaned away from the phone. The last thing she needed was that pseudo-relationship therapist 'Dr. Morgan.'

"Ha. Ha. Morgan. Actually, though, could you take over? I'm on the phone with someone I should really vid in."

"No problem. Hopefully, I can still salvage breakfast." Morgan hurried over to where Chuck was working.

Sarah took the pastries from Alex. Alex made herself useful getting plates and utensils. She asked, "I'm really curious about what my role will be."

Sarah reassured her, "That's one of the things we are going to talk about. Don't worry. You're not going to be a glorified secretary."

Chuck went over to the TV, placing his phone on the coffee table. He pulled up a keyboard and switched the TV to remotely display a computer screen. "Detective Beckett, are you at your desk?"

"Yes. Why?" Beckett wondered why she was still on this call. These former spies were distracted. She meant to hang up a few minutes ago.

"I'm installing an app on your computer. Just a minute." After a few seconds, Beckett saw a new icon pop up on her desktop.

"How did you do that?"

"The Omen worm is disabled, but most of the world's computers still have the security hole it exploited. I used that to get on your computer. When they close that hole, I know about twenty others." Without any action on Beckett's part, the mouse pointer moved and selected the new icon. A progress bar flashed across the screen for an instant and then a full screen window opened. In the window was a live video of former Agent Bartowski sitting on a red couch. Chuck stood, still holding the keyboard balanced on one hand. The camera automatically tracked him. Sarah joined him at his side. Beckett could see Morgan and Alex in the kitchen in the background, and some kind of wooden statue to the left.

"There you are," Chuck waved. "This is much better." There was some audio feedback, so he set down the keyboard and hung up the phone in favor of the video conference.

"How… how did you—"

Sarah cut her off, "My Chuck is good with computers." She titled her head on to Chuck's shoulder. Obviously the honeymoon period hadn't ended. That or they were having a second honeymoon. Chuck was still wearing a T-shirt and plaid PJ bottoms. Sarah's short pink robe was an eye opener, covering almost no leg. Fortunately, Morgan and Alex appeared to be dressed.

Alex said, "Sarah, maybe you should put something else on."

Sarah tightened her robe. "Don't tell me I didn't used to wear this kind of thing. It was in my closet."

"Well, no. But we used to have video calls at Castle or Casey's, so you were more dressed," Chuck acknowledged.

From the kitchen, Morgan called, "But you're right, Sarah, you did used to walk around all the time in stuff like that when I lived here." Alex and Sarah turned to Morgan with different kinds of scandalous looks. Morgan gulped.

"Fine. It's my home, but I'll be right back. I was changing when I answered the phone anyway." Sarah hurried to the back.

"You really don't need to bother. I can't share any more details about the case," Beckett said.

Back to work on the cooking, Morgan called, "So what detective is this? Is this about the damage at the house Sarah destroyed? I thought you paid for all of that."

Chuck called back, "It's Detective Beckett, your favorite police woman from the NYPD."

"Morgan, is there something you need to tell me?" Alex put a hand on her hip and gave Morgan an amused stare.

"No, honey. It's not like that. Yes, she's tall and gorgeous and has these hyponothic- You know I'm going to stop now. She's spoken for anyway. And I am too, of course. I helped her with some relationship stuff last spring."

"You. Morgan. Were providing relationship advice." Alex didn't believe his story.

"Hey, I'm kinda a sweet guy. Sometimes. Anywho, do you remember that graphic novel I got a few weeks ago about the private investigator? I think I saw you flipping through it once." Alex nodded. "She's the muse/future girlfriend of the guy who wrote the comic."

Beckett almost objected, but who was she kidding? She hopefully was Castle's future girlfriend, if he ever stopped obsessing about his former muse. And of course other things had to happen as well.

Alex said to Morgan, "Wait. I thought that was a CIA agent, not a cop."

"It was. The CIA agent's name is Clara Strike. I think Detective Beckett is the muse for his series of… novels…" Morgan trailed off and asked, "Chuck, did you?"

Chuck had rapidly blinked several times and shook his head quickly at an odd angle.

"Yes," he answered, turning back to the TV. "Detective Beckett, let me guess. Your CIA contact is Sophia Turner."

"How did you know that?" Beckett asked. Chuck had figured out the agent from the comic book character name. Amazing.

Sarah reentered the room in a short black skirt and silk blue top, but was still barefoot. This outfit was only slightly less scandalous than the robe. Sarah said, "I remember her." She had followed the conversation from the other room. "When I was on the CATS, she fed us a couple of missions in Eastern Europe. She was a bad handler. Her background information was always sketchy, and the missions went south. She stopped using us, and we went back to Graham. The decision was mutual. "

"Yeah, I think I know why they went south. Sophia Turner, with a 'p-h' is also known as Sofia Conrad, with an 'f'. Sofia Conrad worked for Volkoff."

"Wait, didn't we-"

"Yeah. I'll remind you about how we took down his empire last year, later. It was kinda complicated, and we had to do it twice." Chuck turned back to the TV screen, "Detective Beckett?"

"Yes."

"Sophia Turner is dirty. It's no wonder with a name like Turner."

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"It's an alias for another couple that _almost_ went rogue until we convinced them to retire. Beckman actually wanted us to be more like them. I'll also remind you about it later, Sarah."

"Wait. I think I remember this one. They're the ones that brought the tiger into our home, right?"

"Not exactly, but it was the same mission. Morgan trapped the tiger at Awesome and Ellie's."

Kate couldn't believe she knew someone else who had been almost mauled by a tiger. Yet, that was not important right now. She wanted more information about Castle's treasonous girlfriend. She was doing her best not to smile at the thought.

"Anyway," Chuck continued, "_Sophia_ Turner worked for an insane Russian Arms dealer named Alexei Volkoff, former number three on the FBI's most wanted list. I don't know if she worked for Vivian Volkoff at all, but that really doesn't matter because our company, Carmichael Industries, took over and dissolved the Volkoff Empire last summer. And Turner doesn't work for us. "

"We should contact Beckman," Sarah suggested.

Chuck leaned over and pressed a few keys on the keyboard. Beckett tried to stop him. "I don't think anyone else should be brought in. You've been enlightening, but I shouldn't have even called you."

Chuck looked up and grinned, "Don't worry. We're in the world savings business."

"I thought your business is computer security."

"We _just_ switched, mainly so people would stop shooting us, torturing us, and erasing our memories."

_Erasing memories? What?_ Beckett crinkled her brow as Sarah jumped in, "See, this is what I'm talking about Chuck. I liked being a spy. Shooting people is how I deal with things. I'm not sure about our new business direction."

Chuck stopped and turned to his wife, "No. Being a spy is what you were good at, not what you liked. And you like threatening people, not shooting people. And the business plan was your idea."

Sarah shook her head and rolled her eyes. "We need to have some rules about you knowing me better that I know myself. I know you do, but rubbing it in is not fair."

Chuck grinned and raised his eyebrows a couple of times. "Are you threatening me?" He started to tilt in—

"Eh hem."

"What, Alex?"

Alex pointed at the TV with a police detective who was trying not to look at the screen.

"Right. World to save. Again." Chuck returned to the keyboard. A couple seconds later, the apartment's screen split with the addition of a red-haired general.

"Bartowski… Walker, have you changed your minds and decided to re-enlist?"

"Nope, sorry. But we do have something you need to know about." Chuck pressed a couple more keys, causing Beckett and Beckman's screens to split and reveal each other.

"Who is this?" Beckman asked.

Chuck took over the introductions, "General Beckman, this is Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD homicide. She is currently searching for burned CIA agent Thomas Gage in relation to several murders she is investigating."

"I'm familiar with the burn notice, but not the murders. The whole matter was very surprising. Why are you involved, Chuck?"

"Detective Beckett was in the middle of the portable EMP recovery mission last spring."

"Ah yes, I remember. Well, the FBI should be handling the search for Gage, not the NYPD."

Beckett spoke up, "Sir, the CIA agent we were working with wanted to keep the FBI out of it."

Chuck cleared his throat, "Eh hem, it's ma'am or general, not sir."

"Sorry, my captain insists on 'sir'."

Morgan called from the kitchen, "Don't worry, I made that mistake, too!"

Beckman face looked like a disturbed librarian's, more concerned about the issue at hand, than her salutation. "Keeping the FBI out of the search is not protocol," Beckman asserted. "Who is the agent?"

Chuck said, "The same person that burned Gage, Sophia Turner."

"She runs one of our New York CIA counter-intelligence centers."

"Sophia Turner is also known as Sofia Conrad."

Beckman groaned, "Please tell me this is some kind of joke."

"Not this time."

"Sofia Conrad was the east coast head of Hydra. No wonder we couldn't find her. Does she suspect her cover is blown?"

"I don't know, Detective Beckett?"

"I doubt it. She just kicked my partner and me off of the national security part of the case. I'm still investigating the murders, though."

"What national security case?"

"It's classified."

"Detective Beckett. I am effectively Sophia Turner's boss's boss. Please don't make me call the President. He's wasn't in a good mood in this morning's national security briefing. Just tell me about the case."

Kate knew there was no point of resisting. She had gone too far to stop now. "We still don't know much. It's about something called 'Pandora'."

Chuck almost fell over. Sarah helped him up. "What is it Chuck?"

"That was a big one. We have to stop Sofia, right now, or this could get really ugly. Really, really ugly. I recommended getting as many FBI and SWAT teams as you can to you raid the facilities."

"I don't know where they are based. We had to wear hoods," Beckett said.

"That's not a problem. We do," Beckman said. "We need a CIA agent on the premises because a lot of the information there will be top secret."

"I think I know someone." Chuck picked up his phone and dialed. "Mom? I know you were heading to Europe. … Has your plane left DC yet? … How far out are you? … Just a sec…" Chuck pressed a few keys on the phone, enabling a third split image to appear on the TV screen.

"Mary."

"Diane. Good to see you, Sarah. Who else do we have?"

"Mom, this is Detective Beckett with the NYPD. She worked with us on a Volkoff tech recovery mission last spring and has fallen into a bit of a mess. When you were undercover with Volkoff, did you ever work with Sofia Conrad?"

"Don't tell me. Sofia has resurfaced. Where? New York?"

Beckman said, "She's working under the alias Sophia Turner and is running a CIA operations center there. I need you to lead NYPD ESU teams to retake the facility and apprehend Sofia."

"I'll take the back-up, but might I suggest an alternative? Sofia knew me as Alexei's right hand. Many people assume that's why my son took over his resources. I can walk in and take control from her without any fuss. "

"Ok, I'll make that your call. How soon until you can be in New York?"

"You need to hurry, Mom. I don't know Pandora's linchpin, but I know it's time sensitive."

"Let me talk to the pilot." Mary's screen blanked out as she set her cell phone down.

Beckett glared at the travel coffee cup that was just placed in front of her. She did not reach for it.

"Hey Beckett. Where are the boys?" the writer asked casually.

"Castle, I'm a little busy right now."

"I know you will be once you see the lead I got." He sing-songed the end.

"Castle!" Beckett pointed at her screen.

Castle stepped around her desk and saw the video conference in progress. "Who is… Is that?" Castle whistled, earning a glare from his partner. _What was it with Castle and CIA agents in skirts? "_Beckett, you didn't need to contact them. Last night Sophia stopped by—" Beckett twisted her mouth, "not like that. Plus it looks like they are at home, in LA, not in some secret cool spy base. They can't help much from there."

Mary Bartowski returned to the conference. "General, we've turned around and are 45 minutes out. It could take up to another hour to get downtown. Detective Beckett, I need you to send transport to meet me at the airport. Please have ESU teams on standby. If Sofia has a lot of allies, this could get ugly. Whatever you do, don't go with them. Sofia probably has you under surveillance."

"What is going on?" Castle asked.

"Your girlfriend's a traitor, Castle."

"What? No. No way. I don't believe it."

"I know a guy," Beckett quipped. Ok, maybe she shouldn't be rubbing it in.

"Ok, but I have Blakely's account numbers. Sophia gave them to me. What would she do that if she wasn't on our side? She's helping us find what he was up to." Castle waived a folded piece of paper in front of Beckett.

Chuck blinked rapidly and shook his head again. "You mean 576 9837372 9983. 5897 8983 098908. J4958892 A 0983. Do I need to continue?" Castle's mouth dropped open. Beckett smirked because even the traitorous girlfriend's lead was not needed. Chuck did continue, "Blakely received two large sums from accounts that used to be controlled by Alexei Volkoff."

"I know that name. He used to be on the FBI most wanted list," Castle said.

"And Sophia Turner, aka Sofia Conrad, used to work for him," Beckett told him. "She's using you, Castle, to track down the linchpin."

Mary ignored the flabbergasted writer and brought the conversation back to her plan. "I think Verbanski has a couple teams based in New York. They might provide more convincing back-up for my Frost alias. Alex, do you have your dad's number?"

Castle and Beckett saw a short brunette join Chuck and Sarah in their window. Before she could speak, Chuck cut in, "We were just talking with Casey, Mom." Castle mouthed _mom _to Beckett, apparently not caring that everyone could see. "They're on a night schedule. He's not going to appreciate a second interruption."

"Gertrude will like the business. Also, if I remember correctly, Sofia and Gertrude have a… history. Verbanski Corp. might do this takedown pro-bono."

"Mom, I think I know where this Blakely had an apartment."

"Good. Gage is probably staking that place out. I'll send a team there to bring him in quietly." Mary winced. "The only problem is Gertrude doesn't like me too much either from when I was undercover at Volkoff Industries."

Alex grunted in a way only a Casey could. Everyone seemed to know her dad's girlfriend except her. Fortunately, nobody paid her grunt any attention.

"I'll make the call, Agent Bartowski. I'll call you directly in 5," Beckman said as she disconnected without waiting for a response.

"I should go too. I'll see you in a couple weeks, Sweetheart. Sarah, I'm glad you're settling back in where you belong." Sarah ducked her head and tightened her grip on her husband's hand.

Chuck was about to say something when Morgan called from the other room, "Bye Mrs. B!" Mary, Sarah and Chuck started to chuckle as Mary disconnected, leaving the NYPD and Casa Bartowski on the call.

"So your mom is a spy too?" Castle asked nonchalantly, trying to distract himself about his former muse.

Chuck shrugged.

Beckett said, "Well, I have to figure out how to explain this to my captain, even though she is not allowed to know about the classified details."

"Wait, wait!" Morgan hurried from the kitchen to the TV screen, sliding his girlfriend out of position. He was wearing a chef's apron. "You mean you don't have time for another session?" Alex gave her boyfriend an amused smile and went to take over in the kitchen.

Thankfully, Chuck provided the voice of reason. "Morgan, she has to get ready for the raid of a CIA base that was taken over by a rogue agent. Now is not the time."

"But, Chuck, Mr. Castle just discovered one of his exes actually is evil. Sarah and you could both help with this. We could do a group thing. Well, Sarah could help if she remembered the dirt bag. And I'm sure Detective Beckett is suffering through some serious jealousy pains right now."

"Morgan!" Alex chastised from the kitchen.

"Agent… Mr. … Chuck is right. Thank you for your help, but I have to go." Beckett looked at the window and realized there was no hang-up button for her video call. It wasn't a normal Skype window. So instead she turned off the monitor as she stood to talk to Gates.

She hesitated as she could still hear part of a conversation through her speakers, though, as Chuck continued to talk to his bearded friend. She couldn't make out the first part, but then she heard, "I can only tell you what I flashed on. I don't know the name of the sniper, who shot her, or the person who hired him. Now is not the time to bring this up. I can't really help. Someone high up must have redacted that information from the Inter—" The line went dead.

Beckett and Castle stared at each other. How did Chuck know that stuff?

After a moment, Castle started in, "How do we know that these people are not the bad guys, working with Gage?"

"Castle, these people reportedly stopped the Omen virus, recovered two hand held EMP devices in New York, and casually talked about disabling a suitcase nuke at LAX, while making breakfast. The General had breakfast with the President."

"So they say." Castle was disregarding the fact that he personally saw these agents in action last year. He knew their contacts went up to the President and back to the Mayor.

"Meanwhile, your inspiration for Clara Strike has let us do all of the work, while keeping the FBI out of the way. She won't even let us pull in Ryan and Espo. Also, she says Gage killed three people, but we only know for certain about the one she sent to kill him. That's self defense. What seems more suspicious to you? Don't forget that for some reason, he went out of his way to keep us alive in the trunk. Those aren't the actions of someone killing everyone in his way."

Castle sat down in the chair as Beckett's words sunk in. Meanwhile, Beckett used her 'special status' to convince Gates and the Chief of Detectives to call for the mobilization of ESU. A call in the middle of the meeting from General Beckman helped.

When she returned, Castle was still sitting by her desk, dazed. She grabbed her coat, and then she grabbed his hand to pull him up. "Come on, Castle. It's been decided we can't go near this op. Espo's in the loop, so we can get details from him later. For now, we can lead our tail to lunch. We're going to a 24-hour breakfast place that serves omelets. I'm buying." She loosely swung his arm side-to-side. "As your current muse, I say stop moping about your old muse. Let's get moving."

Rick looked up from his chair. Their eyes met, and he couldn't help but smile slightly, even though the smile didn't reach is eyes. He let her help him up. "It could be worse," she said. "Your wife could have lost her memories from the last several years."

"Why would that be bad? Sex is always better before the marriage. Forgetting the marriage means relearning the fun stuff."

Kate laughed loudly, earning a genuine smile back from Rick. Linking her arm in his, Kate led Rick out to face the world together.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

A/N: There it is. Castle, Beckett, and the little girl are never threatened because Beckett "knows a guy." The case is wrapped up quicker, the linchpin is never revealed (safer for everyone), and Kate and Rick have a lot of time for their non-date.


End file.
